New Year New Challenge

A foggy Saturday. Good intentions of a long walk with two 3-Day buddies up in Riverside Park, Roswell was changed to a shorter walk in Chastain Park with one 3-Day buddy has been, by way of illness for one and need to put down beloved old dog while simultaneously coordinating clearing out room of recently deceased mother-in-law for other (GotJunk.com) reduced to (possible) walk in beloved Piedmont Park before or after returning overdue library books and delivering two pairs of slacks to tailor in Ansley Mall. The shoes are on, the jeans less snug than a week ago. Finished the last butterscotch chewie and am ready to take on the new year.

Which means checking out favorite blogs. On Jonna's, I find a daily journal page challenge begun at Misty Mawn. I know the artist but not the woman but check it out. Since 1967, I've kept a journal, but in 2006 I decided enough was enough and bought myself four identical sketchbooks, 7x7 squares from Canson. The good ones, not the almost identical ones with lighter paper.  The following year, I used four books from the Modern Library series, which I altered. Last year, I found four Moleskin wannabees that had fewer pages, meaning I was limited to half a s

pread (one page) each day (the Cansons allowed for a daily spread). The paper is a bit porous, lots of tooth but false tooth. They didn't like watercolor but took Pitt pens very well, with more thirst than I like, however. (Spent all my teaching money on new Mac so was limited on supply budget.) 

I've grown to love the shopping for next year's four books and so visit all the supply stores here in Atlanta (Binders, Utrecht, Pearl, Blicks) and consider using my own Coptic-bound books. 

Thanks to An Illustrated Life by Danny Gregory, I decided to go for broke (literally) and picked up a couple of 5x8 Moleskins. These are pretty expensive so I'll have to buy them as I need them. 

I'm handling them with some reverence that I hope will move into more useful point of view. The Pitt pens love the slick paper (again, watercolor doesn't work as well; this time because the paper is too slick) and I've started buying Tombo art pens again because they're water soluble.

Aren't new journals the best thing? Here are my pages so far. I should say that I don't consider them finished. Often, in the mornings when I scribble and color (meditate) on the open page, I'll go back and fill in before sending them out to dry.